Meanwhile, the Czech/Slovak DTH platform Skylink is growing strongly and now has 800,000 active cardholders of which more than a quarter of a million have been added in the past 12 months. Skylink is a prepay service and the leading DTH platform in the Czech Republic. In Slovakia, it is still believed to be in second place behind Digi TV.

Ukraine will see the launch of a third DTH platform by the beginning of next year. According to NSR's sources, it will be known as Digital Fly Ukraine and be operated by Kesongs Enterprises. NSR has learned that Digital Fly has begun test broadcasting of its DVB-S2 MPEG-4 digital TV service on satellite Thor 3 at 0.8°W. A possible fourth, MYtv Ukraine, has chosen Intelsat for a multi-year capacity contract to deliver its DTH platform over the Thor 6 satellite.

Balkan satellite service Total TV is about to launch its services in Macedonia, its seventh market in the region. On the other hand, Georgian TV homes will shortly be able to receive the country's first digital satellite TV platform. Market drivers such as low penetration and the "stay at home" effects of the recession are encouraging the entry of new platforms all across the region.

The question that is raised by this unprecedented growth in number of DTH platforms is that of sustainability. Countries such as Poland are expected to have as many as six DTH platforms, and for each one to remain profitable is becoming increasingly difficult. As the region enters into a "subscriber grab" phase, NSR believes that for platforms to achieve scale they will need to consolidate at some stage. The trend is already beginning to take shape in countries such as Russia with NTV Plus and Tricolor, two of the largest platforms in the region merging operations.

Russian operator Orion Express is planning to launch a new platform branded 'Continent TV' to complement its Viva TV service. The Continent platform is expected to bring a number of HDTV channels and also provide respite for the Viva service, which has suffered technical problems. While Orion Express has no plans to shut Viva TV, it may merge the two brands in the long run.

Cyfrowy Polsat ended 2008 with over 2.7 million subscribers, or 31.8% more than 12 months earlier. As of this year, Cyfrowy Polsat plans to invest around €14.2 million in 2010, a figure that is equivalent to around 5% of the platform's revenues. Although these funds have been largely allocated towards equipment subsidies, they could just as easily be directed towards acquisitions given that Poland's sixth platform is scheduled for launch in a few months.

Also, the current generation of Standard Definition platforms are expected to graduate to High Definition and possibly 3DTV in the near and long term respectively. This would bring in wave after wave of growth all across the value chain. The DTH business, in countries such as the United States and United Kingdom has followed the "subscribers first, ARPU later" model where customers, once tied in to a service have switched from basic to premium services thereby driving up ARPU numbers. However, given the advent of competing television offerings such as Free-to-Air, Digital Terrestrial and IPTV, replicating the growth already seen in these economies may be less than trivial.